


Spring Promenade

by perniciousLizard



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-27
Updated: 2013-08-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 20:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/944437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone is scrambling to find a date for prom, but Ishimaru is more concerned with making sure everyone dresses appropriately and that Sakura Oogami stops getting in her fights on school grounds.  She is more concerned with protecting her friends and pursuing her lifelong goal.</p>
<p>Sometimes it just takes a minute for two people to see each other in a different light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spring Promenade

To some of her classmates, Sakura Oogami would always be "the ogre." She was an object of fear and respect. She was mocked for her looks, at times, but never to her face. She understood how she was seen, and accepted it.

  
"Ms. Oogami!" Ishimaru Kiyotaka stopped her in the hallway. "The hem of your skirt must be below the knee! You are disobeying school rules." He had the rule book on hand, in case he was challenged. He had noticed a gross lack of respect for the school's dress code lately, and someone had to do something about it.

  
Sakura glanced down at him, and then down, again, at her skirt. "Ah? My apologies. They do not provide appropriate clothes for women of my size."

  
"That is unacceptable!" he flipped through the rule book, looking for what he was supposed to do in this case, but it didn't say. "I will immediately request a dispensation for you to wear the men's--"

  
"No." Her voice was firm, and there was lightning behind her eyes.

  
Ishimaru met her gaze.

  
"I will have the skirt altered," she said. "I am a woman. I will wear the women's uniform."

  
He nodded, once. "It's resolved." He smiled and clasped his hands together, "Thank you for your cooperation! Everything runs smoothly when we work together!"

  
She agreed, "A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle."

  
"Yes, yes, exactly! I need to write that down." He did.

 ---

A heavy hand smacked Ishimaru hard on the back, but with affection. "Bro, quit ruining the landscape. I hear you've been telling all the girls to stop hiking their skirts up."

  
"Brother! They are breaking school rules and creating a distraction." He suddenly remembered that he needed to bring up Mondo's distracting gang jacket, yet again.

  
"Loosen up for a second. It's hot," Mondo tried to explain.

  
"If the skirts aren't cool enough for the weather, then the girls should petition the council to change the uniform materials," Ishimaru explained. "Brother, you might be onto something. No one can study properly when their clothes are uncomfortable, correct?"

  
Sakura swept down the hall past them, Aoi barely visible on the other side of her. Ishimaru could hear Aoi's bright, cheerful voice cutting through the background noise in the hallway. He noted, pleased, that Sakura's hemline now brushed against her impressively muscular calves. Her sleeves were still torn and messy looking, though. He kicked himself internally for not mentioning that during his lectu--their friendly conversation last week.

  
"Thinner material? Yeah, sure, okay," Mondo shrugged.

  
Kuwata, with his code breaking bright orange goatee that he had promised to get rid of three days ago, punched Mondo in the shoulder in a friendly greeting. Ishimaru watched, noting that brief, noninjurious displays of violence seemed to be a way for men to show affection. He wondered if he should attempt it, next time he saw Naegi. But that was considered assault and was very much against school regulations, not to mention the regular laws of the surrounding country. Perhaps if he asked first, and made sure it was light enough that it did not hurt.

  
"Mondo, my man! Did you hear? She said yes!"

  
"I can't believe that," Mondo said. He swore.

  
"What is this? Brother!" Ishimaru was distressed by his distress, and also by his language.

  
"Oh, don't mind him. He bet me twenty bucks I'd get turned down for prom."

  
" _Betting?_ "

  
Leon suddenly looked alarmed. "Just kidding! Shit, class is starting!" He ran off.

  
They still had five minutes before the bell. Ishimaru was suspicious, and he turned to confront Mondo.

  
Mondo was ready for him, "So, bro, you ask anyone out yet? Hey, I bet you've talked to some cute girls with this bullshit lately."

  
"Ask anyone out? For the Spring Promenade? No, brother, have you?"

  
"I freaked out again. She didn't even stick around to hear what I had to say," he said, devestated.

  
"Oh no! Tell me her name, and I will ask her for you! Is it Ms. Asahina? Ms. Oogami?" He struggled to recall the women Mondo actually spoke with. "Ms...Kirigiri?"

  
"Aoi, maybe, but what the hell's with those other options? No. I can't ask this girl after I fucked everything up so bad."

  
"Yes you can! I believe in you!"

  
"Sometimes talking with you, kid..." he trailed off, shaking his head. He looked exhausted, for a second.

 ---

Ishimaru was strangely fascinated, watching his friends pair up over the next two weeks. This sort of behavior had never really interested him, but he had never really had friends before, had he? And studying television dramas at night so he could discuss them in the morning was probably also having an effect. He wondered if he should cut back, but he was far too invested in one particular political drama no one else under thirty was watching.

  
Perhaps he should ask a girl to attend with him? The idea had never occurred to him before, and it left him feeling sick to his stomach in a way he couldn't explain.

  
He pushed aside a stack of slogans and rested his head in his hand, setting aside a brief moment just to think.

  
There was a heavy knock on the door to the classroom he considered his after school office. He recognized the owner of the knock before ordering her to enter.

  
"Ms. Oogami! I hear you have been fighting outside of matches again!" He didn't wait to hear why she had come by. He looked her over, "And have you been rolling up your skirt?" It was still below her knee, but just barely.

  
She glanced down. "I must have grown."

  
"That is literally impossible, in two weeks!"

  
She shook her head. "It isn't stars on a rainy night, or flowers during a drought. But this is not what I came for. Yes, I have been fighting. An enemy appeared, and tried to kidnap Asahina to throw me off balance. So I did not wait until class hours were done to fight him."

  
He drew his eyebrows together. "Did you contact the police?"

  
She shook her head. "It is done."

  
"Well...considering the circumstances, I will tear up the detention slip I wrote for you," he decided. He paused and looked up at her. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something else.  
He remembered that small talk with your friends involved asking them about the dance. "Ms. Oogami, have you been asked to the Spring Promenade?"

  
Surprised, she shook her head. "I have not been asked."

  
This actually surprised him, as well. She was a very accomplished, impressive woman, and she made more of an effort to follow school rules than many of the other girls. "Ah, we have that in common! I haven't asked anyone yet," he explained.

 ---

He passed by a flower shop on the jog home from school, that evening. He found himself slowing down, thinking. If he was to ask a woman to the dance with him, wouldn't it be best to have something to give her when he did? It would almost be rude, haphazard, to not have anything at all.

  
Inside, the smell of flowers was overpowering. He spotted a small bouquet with cherry blossems and went completely still in the middle of the store. The owner looked at him, alarmed.  
"Of course!" he realized.

  
"Is something the matter?" the owner asked him, as she hurried over.

  
He purchased the bouquet. Of course he should ask Sakura Oogami, and he should give her these flowers when he did so.

 ---

"Ms. Oogami!" he stopped her in the hall.

  
"Yes?" she put her hand gently on Chihiro's shoulder, a silent apology for abruptly ending their conversation, and turned to greet Ishimaru. Instead of his burning gaze, she was startled to find herself with a face full of sweet smelling flowers.

  
"Will you do me the honor of attending the Spring Promenade with me!" Each word was emphasized separately.

  
She took the bouquet, so she could look at him. He was, as always, completely sincere. It would never be, with Kiyotaka, anything but sincere.

  
"Sakura!" Chihiro gasped, next to her.

  
"I would be the one honored," she said, nodding.

  
He clasped his hands together, immensely pleased. "It's settled, then!"

  
She nodded, again. Her cheeks felt warm, and there was a fluttering in her chest. Before she could say anything else, the school bell rang and Kiyotaka was gone.


End file.
